Blog Posts: Service

This semester Prof. Barbara Fedders has presented her latest article, "That School is for Thugs: Alternative Education and the Struggle for Educational Equity," and has also conducted a training for North Carolina district court judges.

Throughout this past academic year, Professor Beth Posner, who teaches the Immigration Clinic and the Domestic Violence Clinic, participated in in a variety of teaching, lawyer training, and other pro bono presentations and programs.

Professor Beth Posner, who teaches in UNC Clinical Programs, is the faculty advisor for UNC School of Law’s Domestic Violence Action Project (DVAP), which was awarded the Robert E. Bryan Public Service Award at UNC’s annual 2015 Public Service Awards April 7, 2015. The Domestic Violence Action Project is a student-run organization that provides free legal representation to victims of domestic violence and sponsors speakers and programs to educate the university community about domestic violence.

On March 10, 2015, Professor Barbara Fedders published the following op-ed in the News & Observer (Raleigh):

Dressing Up Bigotry in NC as Religious Freedom

Like every other lesbian or gay parent in North Carolina, I was thrilled when a federal appellate court brought marriage equality to the Old North State last July. Same-sex couples can now access the 1,000-plus benefits, rights and protections provided on the basis of marital status in federal statutes. I felt relief that my two young daughters will no longer carry the humiliation of knowing their parents are second-class citizens in the eyes of the law.

Professor Tamar Birckhead, Director of UNC Clinical Programs, coordinated the following Statement from UNC System Faculty and Staff in response to the recommendation by a working group of the UNC Board of Governors to close the UNC Center on Poverty, Work, and Opportunity, and narrow the activities of the Center for Civil Rights.

*The UNC Board of Governors voted unanimously on February 27, 2015, to close the Center on Poverty, Work, and Opportunity at UNC-CH as well as the Institute for Civil Engagement and Social Change at NCCU, and the ECU Center on Biodiversity. For more information on current developments related to the actions and decisions of the Board of Governors, please visit the United for UNC website and Facebook page. Thank you.*

We, the undersigned members of the Faculty and Staff of the University of North Carolina, write in opposition to the recent recommendation of a working group of the UNC Board of Governors (BOG) to close the Center on Poverty, Work, and Opportunity, and we stand in support of the advocacy work of the Center for Civil Rights in the face of a pending suggestion that it narrow its activities. Both of these centers are housed at the UNC School of Law. The recommendation to close the Poverty Center, if implemented, will deprive North Carolinians of critical research and education on poverty; chill academic freedom and inquiry; and hurt our law students who desperately need and greatly benefit from the real-world experience that interning there provides. Moreover, the proposal by some members of the BOG working group that the Center for Civil Rights be prohibited from suing the state or its political subdivisions – the usual defendants in civil rights suits – would fundamentally curtail its important work on behalf of marginalized groups. We urge the Board of Governors not to accept the working group’s recommendations regarding these Centers.

On September 9 & 10, 2014, Prof. Beth Posner served as faculty for the ABA Commission on Domestic and Sexual Violence's training institute, Representing Victims of Intimate Partner Sexual Violence in Civil Litigation, in Washington DC. The Institute was designed to provide attorneys from across the country with the opportunity to enhance their skills and knowledge about providing more effective representation to victims of intimate partner sexual violence through civil litigation.

In April, 2014, Professor Beth Posner conducted a two-day CLE (continuing legal education program) on "Litigation Training: Representing Victims of Domestic Violence in Custody Cases." This interactive program provided training in North Carolina custody and domestic violence law as well as litigation skills for practicing attorneys, enabling them to more effectively, ethically, and holistically represent victims of domestic violence, stalking, and sexual assault.

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